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How do you improve as a designer?

over 6 years ago from Cristian Moisei, http://meet-cristian.com

  • Ray MartinRay Martin, over 6 years ago (edited over 6 years ago )

    For me, it's been a mix of surrounding myself around others I admire (designers, developers, people in other industries; basically, anyone who gives a fuck about what they do) and getting out of my comfort zone.

    Sometimes this means going into a presentation and bombing, or being challenged about design decisions I was sure were the right ones—being critiqued with full honesty has been one of the biggest things for me because it can help you see things differently. Tunnel vision is real, and it's so easy to spin your wheels on the same thing.

    Kill your ego. This will only help you grow by welcoming valuable feedback with an open mind. This is crucial when you're in a team whose common goal is to make great products, experiences, brands, etc. with the best possible solutions.

    As overly cliche as this is, "failing" will only make you a better designer. This circles back to getting out of your comfort zone and realizing that the people you work with are looking at you (and trust you) to solve whatever it is you're working on.

    Immerse yourself in multiple areas, not just design. Read up on anything and everything, because you never know when NASA will come to you to design an app and now you're suddenly a rocket scientist.

    tl;dr... hang out with people who are doing cool stuff, step out of your comfort zone, kill your ego, and be interested in multiple things.

    Just my 2 cents.

    19 points
    • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, over 6 years ago

      Hey Ray, thanks for this. I completely agree that being open to feedback / critique / other people's ideas and learning from them is one of the best ways to grow and I try to absorb as much information I can from my conversations with clients and the few people I get to work with (again, freelancer).

      But I do feel like that's not enough, so what I'd like to ask is: are you talking about your work colleagues or are there other people you are hanging out with and learning from?

      1 point